Rabii Brahim and Giselda Ranieri

From : MilanTo: Malta

HO(ME)_project

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How did this grant contribute to the realization of your project in regard to artistic exchange, local cultural development and/or the promotion of cultural diversity?

HO(ME)_project is a multidisciplinary project in dialogue with the local communities that host this project. HO(ME) has the aim to start from and to return to the people.
Focus of this project is to investigate 'home' concept not only in a physical, but also and mostly in a symbolic, iconic and intimate meaning. Moreover to explore how it is related to the identity process of the participants.
This grant contributed to develop a fundamental step for our project allowing us to take part to the Altofest Malta Festival.
During the 2 weeks of our artistic residency in La Valletta, we worked in and together with Okkella Agius residents: a building apartment in Hamrun that is one of the most popular La Valletta's neighborhood.
We collected interviews around 'home' concept and stories about 10 of the 40 families living in that building; eventually, we createted a site specific performance within the active participation of Okkella’s inhabitants. In so doing, HO(ME)_project aimed to increase the value of their stories, narratives and heritage in a personal as well as social dimension.
Through its direct engagement we have been inspired and we inspired Okkella Agius's community that many times felt - and still feels sometimes - to have been set apart from the city.
This has been a fundamental step in order to develop our project and to go deep inside our investigation around 'home' concept.
This residency, the two final performances together with the speeches and meeting we shared with the other companies at the festival, helped us to better focus our project. Moreover it supported us to be prepared for the participation to Trasparenze Festival (Modena-Italy): our next planned step for HO(ME)_project.

How does exchange, networking and international contacts contribute to the development of your artistic and cultural project?

Our residency in Malta has been fundamental because it gave us the occasion to work with a local community for the very first time.
If, at the beginning, we had to work quite hard in order to be accepted from the community in which we worked and performed, later on, after a daily work, that same community started to finally welcome us and to share its culture and memory. Moreover, in La Valletta we had the chance to experience two different communities at the same time: the mentioned community living in the neighborhood of Hamrum, in the daytime and the artists together with we were living together, eating and sharing, by night.
In Malta, a last minute collaboration took place between HO(ME)_project team (Rabii Brahim, Giselda Ranieri, and Anna Serlenga) and the photographer Valentina Quintano: she decided to follow us during the daily work creating a photographic project parallel and linked to ours.
Moreover, we put the basis for a future collaboration between Dynamis Theatre Company and our team.
All of that contributed without any doubt to develop HO(ME)_project.

Can you elaborate on the learning and knowledge you have gained and shared throughout this experience?

Working every day for two weeks in one of the most popular neighborhood of La Valletta - Hamrun - we got in touch with the community living in Okkella Agius's building in a deep way. Thanks to those people, we discovered the traditions and behaviors of La Valletta’s citizens. In particular, we learnt how the identity of that community is connected to that specific place - Okkella Agius - which they recognize like their home. A place that is full of intimate memories and stories some of which critically connected to La Valletta’s history. Realizing how far was the concept of “performing arts” for them, we tried to find a common interest – what "home" means - and to share our respective points of views, talents and curiosities about that. Everything that highlighted and validated the power and the importance of the "home" concept.